


-Don't Let Me Go-

by Shaynun0



Series: -One Direction- Up All Night- [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Based on One Direction songs, Everyone is alive though, F/M, Harry and Louis go through hell together, Harry and Nick is a big part but not that big, Louis and Eleanor isn't that big either, M/M, Niall and Ed are just having fun, One Direction AU where One Direction is One Direction but without harry, she's more of a friend, so do Liam and Zayn, well sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 16:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4026733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaynun0/pseuds/Shaynun0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The AU where Louis nearly gets kicked out of One Direction because he can't write any decent songs. Until he meets Harry and there aren't enough words in the world to explain his feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What Makes You Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first One Direction fanfic and I have a basic storyline, I know where I want this story to go but things might change as I'm writing it. I hope I can upload a new chapter every week, we'll see how hectic my life gets. And each chapter is based off of a One Direction song. I hope that makes sense. I hope you enjoy it. Please leave any comments, even if you want to tell me you don't like certain bits, it would be greatly appreciated!!

WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL

Louis

“FUCK!” The profanity slips out of his mouth as Louis Tomlinson, singer/songwriter for One Direction, burns his head on straighteners, for the third time that week.

“Where is Lou when I need her?” Lou Teasdale, the hair stylist for the boys was glad to be at home this week, spending some lovely time with her partner and her beautiful daughter Lux. It was the start of the 6 month break before One Direction went back on their worldwide tour and it was hard. Hard being away with 4 boys, having to do their hair for them every day, make sure it is perfect. Louis felt for Lou, she had it hard, and she couldn’t always bring Lux with her which was the worst. Even though the boys loved Lux, she couldn’t be on the tour with them. He finishes his hair and goes to look at it in the mirror. He never really liked his hair, never really knew what to do with it- it was light brown and floppy, very floppy, he had to use a bit of product to get it to look half decent.

Deciding that staring at his hair wouldn’t make it look any better, Louis picks up his phone and opens up snapchat. Holding down the volume button and waiting for a video to start before he pans the camera around his head... “So what do you think about tonight’s look Lou, did I do you proud” he spits out before the timer ends. He finds lou’s nickname in his friends list “louTitsdale” and sends her the video. He takes one more look in the mirror, pouting to himself, looking at how amazing his arse looks in these black denim jeans before he heads out. Unaware of the events that are to unfold.

“LOUIS!!” He can hear the screaming girls before he’s even stepped out of the car. Tonight is going to be fun, tonight he just wants to forget, and tonight he will lose himself in somebody. He quickly jumps out of the car, thanking the driver in the process; he throws on his denim jacket, pushes up the collar and walks into the club. Raising his eyebrows at the bouncer as he passes, slipping him a £20 because Louis is well aware of how much stuff you can get away with when the bouncers are all your friends. ‘Deck 2’ was his favourite low key club around where he lived in London, so he didn't even have to order a drink, he just sat down at the bar and Lisa brought him over a vodka and coke to start him off.

“Is Calvin not working tonight, I thought he was.” Louis asked as Lisa started to wipe down the bar. Her long black hair falling down out of its bun. “Yeah sweetie, he’s just downstairs getting some more napkins, he’ll be up soon. You’re looking good tonight, special occasion or what?” She inquires, looking at Louis intently, he had the bad boy look going for him tonight, it even looked like he had pencil eyeliner on, he was definitely showing off his best features tonight. The tight jeans and the pencil around his eyes. Louis takes a sip from his vodka and coke, placing it back on the bar and running his fingers up and down the glass, getting rid of the condensation, he laughs lightly, “had a rough day, just thought I’d get all dolled up and have a good night, you know how it is Lee” Lisa cringing at the nickname walked away tutting at him.

Louis spins around on his seat, resting his arms on the bar, he starts eyeing up who he’ll get to take home tonight. That’s when he spots him. The curly haired boy coming out of the bathroom, dressed in tight jeans, so tight they look like they’ve been painted on his legs. And those legs. Legs going on for days and days and days dear lord. Before he even managed to peruse the rest of that fine body his thoughts get interrupted by somebody whispering in his ear. “So is he the lucky guy tonight, is he going to go home with THE Louis Tomlinson?”  
“Calvin, shut up mate, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Louis cackles. Calvin knew exactly what he was talking about. He knew Louis extremely well. Knowing exactly that he wouldn’t have come to this club on a weekday night alone unless something was up and he needed a quick fuck.   
“So the curly haired one, is he the target for the night, should I send him over a long island ice tea from you?”   
Louis continues to stare at the boy , now stood awkwardly near the stairs. “He’s so unaware” Louis thinks as he spots all the girls, and some guys, checking this curly haired creature out. This whole time the boy just kept flicking his eyes towards the door and at his phone. Not even noticing when a young girl walked past and deliberately dropped her lipgloss on the floor in front of him. He’s so unaware.

And then he looks up.

And they lock eyes.

Shit.

Louis doesn’t know what to do, does he continue staring and let this boy know he has his attention, or does he turn back around and evaluate his life. He chooses the former. Choosing to flick his tongue out and slide over his slightly dry lips. The curly haired boy notices it even though he’s standing more than a few feet away. Louis smirks and drops his head to the right, balancing on his shoulder. The curly haired boy continues to stare, putting his phone away and choosing to walk over to Louis. “Give me half an hour with him, Calvin, and I’ll be dragging him home”

~~~

“So what brings you to this part of town then, Louis?” Having already exchanged formalities, Louis is off to a great start with this curly haired creature. Out of the corner of his eye he glances at Calvin who is pointing to his watch. He understands. It’s been nearly 25 minutes and Louis still hasn’t managed to pull this boy. And he’s not entirely sure he wants to. He’s enjoying chatting away with this guy....Harry? Yeah, Harry. Harry has an intensity to his eyes that is completely shot to hell with the fact that he is quite a slow speaker. But Louis is digging it. He’s loving it. He feels like he could listen to him talk for hours.

“Oh, I live and work close by so, thought after having a rough day at work I would come and relax a bit at my favourite club.” Louis takes a second to look around the bar; sticking his head out at different angles in the hope that harry will notice his cheekbones or his jaw, which always makes people go weak. His sharp facial features.

“What is it you do?” Harry gets out, albeit faster than before, now that Louis has bought him a few drinks.   
“You don’t know?” Louis questions, he’s in One Direction, how does this guy not know.  
“Erm no, sorry gorgeous, should I?” Harry looks sad at the fact he doesn't know, and Louis wants to curl up into him and kiss that frown away. Louis is also feeling quite giggly over the fact Harry just called him gorgeous.  
“Gorgeous, eh? No, it’s okay, I'm a singer/songwriter. Or at least I was, I think they're taking the songwriter title away from me, I haven't produced a decent song in a while.”  
“Why’s that?” Harry inquires  
“Are we playing twenty questions here Harry, because there are some questions I'd like for you to answer.” Louis giggles and Harry looks at the floor, rolling the beer bottle in his hand.   
“I just haven't really been inspired I guess, to write songs that is.” At this stage Calvin walks past the bar near Louis and Louis gets out a £20 note and passes it to him and Calvin knows exactly why. It’s been 43 minutes since Harry had walked over to Louis, and he hadn't managed to get him back to his house under the 30 minute time limit that the boys had set up. It’s something they started to do around 2 years ago when they were 18, when they properly started to go out at night. Seeing who could pull in under half an hour. Louis hardly ever owed Calvin the money but tonight was worth it, Harry was interesting and he didn't mind waiting to get him home. He had a feeling he would be worth it. Those arms for starters, they were big, Louis liked to imagine Harry could hold him up against a wall for a good hour whilst he pounded into him.

~~~

“Louis we’re closing soon.” Calvin says as he walks past the booth that Harry and Louis had somehow ended up at.   
“I guess that means our lovely evening is coming to an end Mr. Styles, how disheartening.” Louis says to Harry, putting on a posh voice.   
“Nooooooo, it’s been so fun” Harry whines, curls falling down his face as his head drops forward, pouting towards the floor.  
“I know, I don’t want this to be over, I've had fun, really.” Louis says as he reaches across the table and one hand finds Harry’s hand and one hand pushes the fallen curls back.   
“Maybe we can continue this, my house is a few minutes away, I can call us a driver” Louis smirks at Harry, catching his eyes; they’re so big and beautiful and wow. He could definitely lose himself in those eyes Louis thinks.  
Harry stands up, “that sounds great, lovely, amazing, but I should be going, I have to get up early, to open the store and stuff.” Harry responds not looking at Lou until the last word is out of his mouth. Louis stands up too, shoving his clenched hands into his pockets, was he losing his touch or something. “Nah, I understand mate, it’s been fun though, thanks for keeping me company. Maybe I’ll see you again, yeah?”

“Yeah.”  
  
Harry isn’t being very talkative so Louis goes to grab the glasses from the table. “Well I’m gonna wait for Calvin to finish and get a cab home with him so....bye?” A slight burst of optimism in his voice, hoping that this curly haired creature didn’t want to say bye, he was not done with harry, he wanted to know everything about him, how he got into baking, why he took a gap year to work in a bakery, what he wanted to do after the year was up, why he came to the club in the first place. Everything.  
“Yeah, erm, can I get your number or something, maybe we can do this another time, chat I mean” Harry finally spits out and Louis is so glad, he has to actually stop himself from bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. Just the idea that he might get to hang out with this nerd again is enough to lift his spirits.   
He grabs Harry’s phone and puts in his number, saving the contact as 'that beautiful boy from the bar' figures he’ll let Harry have a little adventure trying to find him later “Text me when you get home” Louis says to Harry as he starts to walk towards the bar where Calvin is cleaning some glasses. He makes sure to dip his back and push out his bum a bit more, and that he sways his hips a bit more; he wants to give Harry something he won’t forget.

  
~~~

  
A few hours later as Louis is just drifting off to sleep, under his warm duvet, he gets a text.

“07455326843. I like the contact name Louis Tomlinson, good one .x”   
Louis smiles to himself and even though it’s late he sends back a quick response

“Hey, at least I wasn’t lying, I am that beautiful boy from the bar x”

“Trust me, I know it’s not a lie.x”  
Louis smirks at this reply, he’s quick on the ball this one.

“Smooth Mr Styles, flattery will get you everywhere x”

“That’s what I was hoping for.x”

“So why didn’t you let me take you home tonight, Curly. Could have had some action...films y’know, action films, grabbed some popcorn x”   
Louis inquires, because truth is, he really wanted to take him home, even if he just let him sleep the night in the spare room, he wanted to make sure he was safe. He wouldn’t have minded a quick fuck either but still.

“Haha, smooth Louis.x”

“You’re avoiding the question x”  
Louis is tired and considers just shutting his phone off when a reply off Harry eventually comes through.

“I didn’t want to mess anything up with you, I was scared. X”   
this response baffles Louis, how could Harry be scared. Harry was just....well he didn’t even know Harry but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to get scared of things.

“Why baby, I would have taken care of you, I would have shown you a good time x”

“I know actions speak louder than words but Lou, you’re a songwriter, write me a song and maybe I’ll be so blown away that I’ll let you show me a good time. X”

And that’s how it started.   
He couldn’t sleep.  
Louis was determined.   
He was going to write Harry a song.   
And y’know what, he wanted to write one too.   
He felt inspired.

_**“You’re insecure, don’t know what for. You’re turning heads when you walk through the door, don’t need makeup, to cover up. Being the way that you are is enough. Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you”** _

Louis finishes it and he feels good. He’s gonna take this to the boys tomorrow and see what they think. Maybe management won’t want him to drop his songwriter title. He falls asleep with the lyrics going over and over in his mind “You don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful."


	2. What Makes You Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2- It's the next day and Louis finds himself in Harry's bakery and Harry finds himself running from Lou

 

** WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL **

**_ Harry _ **

 

The curly haired boy lies in his bed as his alarm goes off beside him. After about 30 seconds he inhales deeply, stretches, and reaches over to turn his alarm off.  ‘5:15am’ is what he’s greeted too. He reaches up and ruffles his curls, making his way to the bathroom. He had a shower the night before so he just quickly splashes his face with some hot and cold water, brushes his teeth, puts on some deodorant and heads back to his room to find some clothes.

On the floor he is greeted to a pile of blackness. His black skinny jeans, his black boots, his black silk top, his black blazer, and the black hat to complete the whole outfit. He’d worn them the night before and had just chucked them there when he came home, not wanting to do anything but get in bed and sleep. He don’t think he got home all that late last night, he’d managed at least an hour and half of sleep before he got up this morning. Even though he knew that throughout the day his body would punish him for his lack of sleep, he just doesn’t care. He had too much fun last night with Louis Tomlinson. As he’s throwing on some fresh boxers and some smart black pants, he grabs his phone to check his notifications.

Three texts off his mother, probably asking him if he got home okay last night. A few twitter notifications, some emails, and some texts off Louis. He opens this first as he’s eager to see what tommo the tease has to say.

“Sooo, I know you’re probably asleep right now but I just thought you should know that the song is finished. It’s really good if I do say so myself, hoping to play it to the rest of the lads today to get their opinion on it x”  
“P.S I hope that text didn’t wake you up and if it did I am sorry but I just had to let you know about the song x”  
“P.S x2 I hope that text didn’t wake you up either, or this one. But I just wanted to say, have a good day, Curly x”

Harry’s smile gets bigger and bigger with each word he reads, he throws his phone on the bed whilst he tries to find his work shirt.

“Harry, do you have to work today? Stay off and we can have a movie day.” Nick says into his pillow.

“Nick, I have to work, will you be here when I get home?” Harry asks the half asleep boy who is rolling over to Harry’s side of the bed and squishing his face into his pillow.

“No, I’m working from 12 till 2 today.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then, I’ll leave you some food in the oven and leave a cake in the fridge” Harry replies, picking up his phone and heading towards the door.  
  
“well aren’t you the best boyfriend ever” Nick responds. “Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?”

Harry is confused for a second until he looks at Nick who has lifted his head up from Harry’s pillow and is pouting at Harry. His hair is sticking up in a variety of places and damn, he looks adorable. Harry makes his way over to the bed and plants a kiss on Nick’s lips.  
“I’ll see you later, text me.” Harry’s voice bellows from down the hall.

~~~

He has his earphones in and he’s doing the 10 minute walk from his flat to the bakery. Listening to Miley Cyrus’ new song. He’s a big fan of it to be honest, he can feel the emotion that went into writing that song. As he’s thinking about the writing process his thoughts flick to Louis and he remembers he never text him back.

“Hey, I’m glad you’ve wrote a song, maybe I can hear it one day? I hope you have a good day too, Louis Tomlinson. X” Harry hits the send button and smiles to himself. He’s just gotten to the bakery so he heads inside and is greeted by his co workers.

“Wow, you look rough Harry.” His back is turned towards the coat hanger but he can still tell the voice is Danielle Peazer’s. A dancer trying to make a few extra bucks around here. She also models too so Harry could never figure out why she chooses to have a side job at this bakery. But he sort of understands it, the bakery is nice, calming, it’s the same routine every day and whilst that does sound boring, it sometimes helps to just know that at 6am the fresh bread is made, 7:30am  they open up the shop. The same 8 people come to the shop for the fresh bread. At 11am the builders down the street come in for their bacon and/or sausage butties. At 3am the children from the local school start filling in for cakes and by 4, they’re tidying up and getting ready to close. Sometimes Harry’s thoughts get too hectic and this repetition helps him feel better. Although today somebody messes up his normal routine.

~~~

Harry’s on his break, 1am every day. He checks his phone, sends off some tweets. Replies to Nick telling him that he’ll make spag bol for tea and he’ll bring him home a nice lemon meringue cake.

He’s about to bite into his bacon, lettuce, and tomato butty when he hears the voice.

“Hey mate, you got any egg sarnies left?”

He knows that voice. His heart flutters and he steps out of the back room and he’s met with the beautiful sight that is Louis Tomlinson. He’s got some grey sweatpants on and a baggy nike jumper.

“Didn’t think I’d see you so soon, Tomlinson” Harry grins at Louis. They lock eyes and Louis is immediately grinning back.  
“Well after your talk about your lovely bakery last night I just couldn’t stop thinking about fresh baked bread and nice warm eggs like my mother used to make”  
“So I’m stuck in that head of yours Tomlinson?” Harry asks- his dimples showing, which Louis’ eyes flick down to look at. Louis coughs and looks down, not wanting Harry to know the truth. “Maybe you are a tiny bit Harry, so, do you have any egg sandwiches left or what, I’m starving, I’ve been up all night slaving away writing songs” Louis has his hands on top of the counter now, leaning forward slightly, beaming up at Harry and his curls, he’s not over how bouncy they are, they take on a life of their own and he’d like nothing more than to have his fingers tangled up in them.  
“We don’t actually do them after 11 but let me see if there are any eggs in the back and I’ll whip one up, my treat.” Harry bumps fists with Louis hands that are planted on the counter and he looks at the smile spreading on Louis’ cheeks, and those cheekbones are still so prominent, oh how he’d like to see those cheeks whilst his dick is in that mouth. Harry brushes away the dirty thought and heads into the back, focusing on whipping up some eggs for Louis, distracting himself from the blood thats started to rush to his penis. He makes scrambled eggs and puts in some extra pepper and garnishes with some basil. Putting it on some nice baps and placing it into a paper bag for Tomlinson. He’s drawn a little smiley face on the bag and added his signature ‘.x’  
  
“Here you go Tommo” Harry beams as he hands over the sandwich and Louis hands over the change.

“You’re an absolute star Harry, I can’t cook anything so I appreciate you satisfying my needs.” Louis smile is so big it looks like his cheekbones might break under them

“Do you usually get others to satisfy your needs?” Harry asks, cleaning the crumbs off the worktop. Keeping his eyes on the counter.

“Well some needs I can manage myself, it’s always fun to have others help out though. I better be off, gotta go to the studio and show the fellas this song” Louis heads towards the door, opening up his sandwich bag

“Will I get to hear this song, I mean, I did inspire you after all. I feel like I deserve to hear it.”

“You can come over to mine around 5 if you want and you can hear it then, the boys will be there so you can hear how it sounds with all the vocals and stuff”  
“okay sounds good Lou, one problem”  
Louis looks confused for a second, trying to figure out the problem.  
“I don’t know where you live Lou.” Louis face returns back to that easy smile as he walks back over to the counter and grabs a pen and a paper bag, he scribbles down his address, says thanks to Harry again, and then he’s gone.

Harry can’t stop smiling at the address.

“Ooooooh you’ve got it bad Harold” Harry turns towards Danielle, drawing in his eyebrows. “I have no idea what you’re talking about Danielle.” She giggles at him whilst he goes back to his break and eagerly awaits 4:30 when the shop closes.

~~~

It’s 4 o’clock and Harry has started to panic, he doesn’t know if going to Louis’ will be a good idea, he doesn’t know the boys. He doesn’t even have time to go home and put on something respectable. Just as doubt starts to really fill his mind he gets a text off the devil himself.

  
“Hey, can you bring round some cakes and stuff for the boys; I’ll pay you back when you get here, thanks beautiful. Get one for yourself too, my treat”

Harry grins at the text, thinking to himself that tommo really is such a tease. He likes it though. He likes it so much that he looks up and catches his reflection and his smile hasn’t faltered, and a redness has appeared slightly on his cheeks.

“How many cakes do I need to bring and what flavours?” he texts back.

Harry writes down the order and packs up the cupcakes. He jumps around a bit to let out some of the energy he has in him, he’s excited.

~~~

Louis’ house is massive, looking up at it now Harry reasons that maybe you could fit, 5 of Harry’s flats into this one house. It’s massive. He’s intimidated but that doesn’t stop him from ringing the doorbell. Not even seconds later he hears footsteps behind the door and then the door flings open and he’s face to face with someone he doesn’t know. It’s a guy, and he looks mysterious, and like a model to be quite honest. “Hey, I’m Zayn, you must be Harry” Zayn extends his hand and Harry takes a second to admire the tattoo on it before he extends his too. “Yeah, I’m Harry, are you a friend of Louis’”  
“Yeah, come on in bro. Those cakes look nice man”

Harry laughs as he walks into the house, taking in how big the lobby alone is. “I hope so, I spent hours this morning slaving over them, trying to get them to perfection, I hope you like them.” Doubt has started to seep into Harry’s voice. Zayn laughs “Harry, I’m sure we will, Louis hasn’t stopped talking about how nice your egg butty was this morning so I’m sure they’re fine.” Zayn leads Harry down the hall to the back of the house and then down some stairs to the studio. “We just finished recording Louis’ new song, it sounds sick.”  
As they walk into the studio Harry is immediately met with so much laughing. It must be soundproof he realises, wow. Even though there are a collection of laughs, he can spot Louis’s straight away. He almost starts to laugh himself.  
“HARRY!” Louis notices him and gets up to fist bump him, still dressed in the same clothes as before.  
“Hey Louis, I brought the cakes, I hope everyone likes them.”  
“Thanks mate, I appreciate it” Louis responds, taking the cakes out of Harry’s hand as he starts to pass them around. Red velvet cake with vanilla icing for Louis, chocolate and coffee for Zayn. Vanilla and chocolate for Liam. Bacon and chocolate for Niall.  There are two more left over. Lemon meringue for Nick later and the blueberry sponge with vanilla icing for Harry. The boys all dig in and nobody talks and Harry can’t decide if this is good or not.  
“Holy cow Harry” The blonde irish boy on the floor spits out, “this is amazing”  
“Yeah! Wow, good one Harry” The other boy on the sofa near Zayn says, he’s not entirely sure who that is but he’s positive he will soon.  
“Told you not to worry didn’t I Harry?” Zayn nods at Harry, giving him a thumbs up in the process.  
“This is the best red velvet cake ever, this and the egg butty, I’m gonna have to start taking daily trips to your bakery, Harold” Harry smiles at this, he’s glad Louis likes it  
“And to the gym too then”  
“Oh shut up Liam”

Liam, the other boy is Liam, now he just needs the name of the little leprechaun and he knows them all.  
“That’s Niall by the way” As if Louis heard his thoughts.  
“Hello Niall. I’m glad you like the cupcake, not many people do so maybe I can bring all the leftovers here from now on, instead of putting them in the bin”  
Niall laughs at this. “buzzing” he replies as he takes the last bite of his cupcake.

The boys all sit and talk for a bit, talking about their day and random stuff, Harry doesn’t really know what they’re talking about half the time but he sits and listens anyway, taking glances at Louis now and again, watching the way his hand falls on his heart when he’s laughing, or the way his eyes crinkle when things get too funny.

“So Harry didn’t come here to just bring cupcakes, I said we’d play him the new song so”  
The boys all groan, but they get up and head into the studio, Louis motions at Harry to put on the headphones that are on the desk so he can hear the music as well as the vocals.

A quick beat starts which reminds him of Grease and then Liam’s voice starts.

At first Harry just goes with the song, and then it hits the chorus and he decides to actually listen to the lyrics.

_**Baby you light up my world like nobody else** _   
_**The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed** _   
_**But when you smile at the ground it aint hard to tell** _   
_**You don’t know oh oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful** _

_**If only you saw what I could see** _   
_**You’d understand why I want you so desperately** _   
_**Right now I’m looking at you and I can’t believe** _   
_**You don’t know oh oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful** _   
_**That’s what makes you beautiful.** _

Harry looks up at Louis and he looks so happy, Harry doesn’t understand how Louis could write this song about him, it was so beautiful. Did Louis think Harry was beautiful or had Harry just inspired him to write about someone else, Harry was so confused, he didn’t know what to do?

He ran.

He took off the headphones and just ran out of there.

He hadn’t even reached the main street before his phone started to ring.

He was confused.

Why did he run?

Why was he scared that Louis found him beautiful?

Or was he scared the Louis found someone else beautiful?

Either way it wasn’t his problem, he had Nick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured for each song I'm going to do a chapter for each of the boys. Some of the chapters will be of the same event but from different boys perspectives and some of them will be just stuff that's happening with the boys. I wanted each of the boys to be just as important as harry and louis. I hope that makes sense, I know I babble.


	3. What Makes You Beautiful

** WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL **

**_ Zayn _ **

Zayn lies there in the bed waiting for the alarm to go off. He’s not been sleeping well recently. Most nights getting only half an hour of sleep. He’s not well. He doesn’t know who to turn to.

It’s 7am and his alarm is going off, he gets up and turns it off and makes his way to the bathroom, stretching himself out in the process. He turns the shower on letting the water heat up as he uses the toilet and brushes his teeth. Even the little things like weeing are getting harder to do. He’s not well. He doesn’t know who to turn to. He gets into the shower and just stands there letting the water hit his back. He thinks about the last few days, 2 days ago he went out with Liam and since then he’s been locked up in his house. He can’t face the world. After a good 20 minutes just standing in the shower thinking about the night with Liam, he starts washing his hair, but even he can’t be bothered with doing that properly so he fumbles about his head with a bit of shampoo and then just washes it off. He steps out, catches his reflection in the mirror, the black bags under his eyes having increased since he last looked, his skin looked pale for once instead of its normal tanned look. He towel dries himself and shoves on some boxers and heads downstairs to the kitchen. He’s not well. He doesn’t know who to turn to.

~~~

He’s been in the kitchen about a minute before he decides he doesn’t want to eat today and he hears the front door fly open. Knowing full well that it’s Louis, the only other person with a key seeing as they are at each other’s house pretty much every week.  
“ZAYNY BABY I DID IT! I’VE WROTE A SONG. A GREAT ONE TOO IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF”  
Zayn plasters a smile on his face and turns to welcome Louis into his arms, he finds more comfort in it than Louis does. He just wants to sink into the hug forever until his problems disappear.  
“I’m so happy for you, what made you write a song bro” Zayn asks Lou, keeping the smile on his face  
“Well last night I went to Deck 2 and met this guy, he’s called Harry and....” Zayn doesn’t hear the rest of what Louis says, all he can think about is the night with Liam, they went to Deck 2 and Liam left with a girl. Thinking about it made him feel like his chest was tightening up, like he needed to expand his lungs but he couldn’t, he just felt tight and achey. Louis notices the distant look on Zayn’s face and pulls him into another hug. “Here I am going on about this stupid song whilst you clearly have something going on with you, what’s up?” Zayn falls into the hug again, letting Louis hold his weight. Louis starts to stroke circles into Zayn’s back; he kisses the side of his face and squeezes him tightly.  
“What’s up, talk to me” Louis whispers into Zayn’s hair  
Zayn finally pulls away deciding he won’t burden Louis, especially seeing as he’s so happy that he’s written a song. “Nothing Louis, just caught me in a half asleep state y’know, haven’t quite woken up.”  
“You sure?” Louis inquires, Zayn smiles at this, Louis may come across as a feisty dick sometimes, but his heart is filled with nothing but love.  
“Yeah, listen I’ve got some chores to do so you need to go, I’ll see you at yours later.”

~~~  
Zayn has arrived at Louis, after a day of lying in bed; he nearly cancels on the boys because he can’t be bothered to put on some clothes. Eventually he finds the energy to throw on some black skinny jeans, a white band tee, and his leather jacket. The bad boy look was what he rocked best. He didn’t have the energy to drive over to Louis’ so he calls a driver, thinking he’ll just stay over at Lou’s after their studio session.  
He’s the last one to arrive it seems, he rings the doorbell and Liam opens up the door.  
Shit.

“I can’t do this” Zayn thinks. “I can’t be around him.”  
“HEY GUYS, ZAYN IS HERE, FINALLY!” Liam raises his fist and Zayn manages to connect his. “Y’alright mate, what’s going on?”  
“Not much Zayn, not heard from you in a few days, you okay?”  
Zayn lies because, by now, the lying comes easier than the truth. “Yeah man, I’m good, been busy, family stuff y’know, they’re coming up soon, been cleaning the house and stuff. How’re you, not seen you since the club?” Zayn asks, because truthfully, he wants to know how Liam is. As they make their way through Louis’ house to the studio Liam recalls the night.  
“Oh man, that night was great, thanks for inviting me. Y’know that girl I met, yeah, I took her home and we stayed up all night just talking about shit and then we watched a movie and we just fell asleep on the floor. Nothing happened. It was great though, she’s great, I think I want to see her some more. She’s called Danielle and she’s a dancer y’know at that dancing school above the mall..”  
By this point Zayn isn’t really listening, he isn’t taking in what’s being said, he’s just nodding and mhmming when necessary.

Once they’re in the studio Zayn finds his way into the recording room, he starts messing about with his microphone. “Hey guys, can we hurry this up, I have some stuff to sort out for when my family come up?” deciding that he won’t stay over tonight, he can’t deal with the many hours with these boys, he loves them, some a bit too much, but he needs to be alone.

A few hours later they’ve finished recording the song and it’s great, he honestly loves what Louis has done. He can’t wait for that boy to come over so he can sing it again and then leave. He needs to be as far away from Liam as possible right now, especially since he looks so hot and smells like heaven. They exit the recording room and sit on the sofas just having a chat, Liam and Zayn on one sofa, Niall on the floor, and Louis on the other sofa. Liam turns to Zayn, putting his legs across him. He rests his head against the back of the sofa and stares at Zayn till he turns his head and stares back.

Those eyes.

Those puppy eyes.

“Wanna come out tonight and we can hit a club again, I’ve already invited Danielle and she’s got some of her friends going out tonight so do you wanna join, I can be your wingman.”

He really can’t do this.

“That sounds good, I’ll see how much stuff I have left to do at home and I’ll let you know.”  
He needs to get out of there; he pulls Liam’s legs and slides off the sofa placing the legs back down gently. “Just gonna go pee lads”

He doesn’t need to pee, he just needs space. Which is good really because as he’s walking around upstairs he hears the doorbell. He opens it to see a curly haired boy dressed formally, with flour in some of his curls.

After the formalities he takes the boy...Harry, downstairs, they walk in to the studio and the boys are all laughing. Zayn catches Louis’ eye and winks and Louis starts to blush. They both know what that means.

Zayn decides that for the rest of the night he’s going to focus on Harry and Louis, he feels like there’s something going on there. Something great going on.

After handing out some of the cakes he’s brought with him, the curly haired boy joins the circle of lads and they all sit and talk for a bit. Zayn thinks he can’t surely be the only one noticing what’s going on but he thinks he is. He doesn’t think even Louis and Harry know they’re low key flirting with each other. Every now and again Louis will reach over and lightly tap harry on the arm or nudge him and smile at him. Harry keeps staring at Louis. Holy shit this is hilarious. Louis has his hands in Harry’s curls and is twisting them around his fingers. Zayn smirks because he can’t wait to question Louis about this later.

“So Harry didn’t come here to just bring cupcakes, I said we’d play him the new song so”  
The boys all groan, but they get up and head into the studio, Louis motions at Harry to put on the headphones that are on the desk so he can hear the music as well as the vocals. Zayn notices the big grins that they both have on their faces. It’s great. They’re such flirts oh my gosh he’s loving this.  

Zayn gets ready to join in with the chorus and he flashes a look at Liam, to find him already staring at him sweetly.

**_If only you saw what I could see_ **   
**You’d understand why I want you so desperately**   
**Right now I’m looking at you and I can’t believe**   
**You don’t know oh oh, you don’t know you’re beautiful**   
**That’s what makes you beautiful.**

Zayn looks away from Liam. He thinks to himself, if only Liam would let me show him how beautiful he is to me. He looks up at Harry to see if he’s enjoying it and Harry hastily takes off the headphones and runs out. Zayn shoots a look at Louis “He okay, Lou?”

Everyone stops singing and they all rush out of the recording room to go see where Harry has got to. They get upstairs and Zayn notices Louis’ hands clenched, not a good sign. He’s known Louis for a long time and he knows this isn’t good. He goes over to him and starts to stroke the section where his neck and shoulder join; he knows this is Louis’ favourite spot to be touched. Lou turns into him and they both hold each other. “He probably realised he was late for something, its okay, just ring him and leave him a few texts, it’ll be okay Louis.” He pulls away from the hug and takes Lou’s chin in his hands, pecking him on the head and the cheek.  
Zayn looks up from Louis and notices Liam in the corner shooting daggers at him. What the fuck. Zayn doesn’t even have chance to ask him why he’s staring at him like that before Liam grabs his keys and coats and leaves. “See you later” he shouts just before he slams the door shut.

“Woah, what’s up with him?” Louis asks whilst trying to locate his phone.  
  
“I don’t know, hey I’d love to help sort out this harry stuff..”  
“Nah Zayn, get out of here, its okay, you’ve got your house to sort out, text me when you get in, yeah?”  
“Yeah” Zayn smiles at how Louis always makes sure people get home safe, he’s reminded of the time that he was stuck in traffic for ten minutes and had his phone on silent. When he went to text Louis after getting home he had nearly 50 texts off Louis going mad saying he should have been home already, was he okay, was he being stabbed. Zayn looks at his best friend and chuckles, he’s a cute human.

Zayn calls a driver and decides to wait outside for it to arrive, he needs the air. He texts Louis when he’s in the car saying that he’s home just so he can turn his phone off straight away and just go to bed when he gets in. Which is exactly what he does. And he stays there for 4 days. He’s not well. And he knows exactly who he wants to turn to. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that these few chapters are quite boring because the story hasn't started to pick up, I apologise.


	4. What Makes You Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn gets taken to hospital and Liam still hasn't figured it out

** WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL **

**_ Liam _ **

It’s Sunday morning and Liam wakes up around one in the afternoon, it’s not like he had a late night last night, got home at 11 after a nice trip to the cinema with Danielle. He’s just always revelled in the magic of Sundays, they way they cuddle you in the morning and you can just sleep and sleep. Sundays to him felt like spring. He’s never quite been able to explain it, but it’s like they’re a comforting day after a tiring winter week. And part of the Sunday magic is just lying in bed for as long as possible, soaking up the warmth and sleep. He sits up in bed and flicks on the TV that’s at the bottom of his bed, finds FRIENDS and grabs his phone. He can hear Chandler in the background, making some god awful jokes whilst he’s stuck in an atm vestibule with Jill Goodacre. He’s seen the episode a thousand times, who hasn’t though? So he doesn’t have to pay attention, he just sits and goes through his twitter feed, sending out a tweet about how sleepy he is. Within seconds the tweet has so many retweets and favourites, it amazes him. He checks his notifications and sees one off a Zayn Malik fan account which obviously gets him thinking about Zayn.

He realises he hasn’t heard or seen his friend since Wednesday when he rushed out of Lou’s house.

He doesn’t even know why he did it. He just saw Zayn kissing Louis and he got angry. It probably had to do with the fact that they were wasting time cuddling whilst Harry had just abandoned the place, the cuddling wouldn’t have solved anything.

He wonders how Zayn is doing and decides he’s going to invite him over for the day, help each other out on bioshock or fifa.

The phone is ringing and after 4 rings he thinks Zayn isn’t going to pick up.

“Hello?” Zayn sounds tired, it’s nearly 2 so he doubts that Zayn just woke up, he knows he’s a sleeper but he never usually sleeps this late unless they’re on tour.

“Yo, Zayn, what you up to today? Not heard from you in a while, everything good man?” 

“Erm not got any plans, why?” Zayn ignored his second question and Liam decides not to press him about it.

“I was just wondering, if you wanted to come over, play some xbox games, we can try and get past that bit on bioshock that we were stuck on last time you came over?” Liam laughs lightly recalling how they spent nearly 40 minutes trying to figure out how to do that one little task, it stressed them out so much that they nearly chucked their controllers at the tv.

“That sounds great!! But I have a parcel being delivered so I have to stay in, thanks though bro”   
Liam can clearly tell Zayn is lying. The added enthusiasm. He’s known him long enough to know when he lies.

“Okay then I’ll see you later then. Bye.” Before Zayn can even respond he hangs up the phone and decides that he’s going over there. He needs to know what’s wrong with his friend. He wasn’t acting normal when they were all at Louis to be honest.

~~~

He gets to Zayn’s and finds the spare key under the windowsill, even though Louis and Zayn are the only ones who actually have keys to each other’s house, the boys all know where each other’s spare keys are.

He unlocks the door, pushes it open and he’s hit with a sight that makes his heart break.

Zayn curled up on the bottom of the stairs, blood coming from his eye. He feels like his heart has actually stopped. He rushes to Zayn’s side, dropping the keys, stroking at Zayn’s jaw, frantically looking at his chest to see if he’s breathing.

“Zayn, Zayn, are you okay, can you hear me, Zayn, I need you to open your eyes for me if you can...” Liam continues to talk to Zayn whilst he grabs for his phone and tries to dial 999, he drops the phone and curses. Why is he shaking like this, he has to get it together. But how can he, he looks at Zayn, that beautiful hair is slicked back with grease, he looks so thin, the bags under his eyes. He feels like if he even touches him, he’ll break. By this point tears are streaming down his face. He manages to pick up the phone and successfully call for an ambulance.

“Hello, I need an ambulance, I’ve just found my friend and it looks like he’s fallen down the stairs, there’s blood coming from his eyes”

“Can I have your address please; an ambulance will be on its way”

Liam gives Zayn’s address and stays on the phone to answer more questions but he isn’t really concentrating, he’s staring at Zayn and he can feel a panic attack coming on. What if he hadn’t decided to come here, what if Zayn hadn’t been found today? Would he have died? That last thought sends Liam over and he’s trying to control his breathing but he can’t. The air isn’t coming in to his lungs, he tries to make it to Zayn’s table in the foyer, knowing that there’s an inhaler in there. All the boys keep stuff in case this happens. Inhalers for Liam when he has panic attacks.  Painkillers and migraleve for Niall who gets pain a lot in his leg from the accident and migraleve for those migraines he gets. And children’s plasters because Louis is always hurting himself and the childish designs make him feel nostalgic. He grabs the inhaler and it helps, it really does but the panic attack is still there, god his chest feels so tight. He’s trying not to look at Zayn, he knows that won’t help. He’s grabbing at his chest trying to feel his heart beat and control his breathing until it calms down. He drops to his knees besides the lifeless boy; he needs to pull himself together. The tears are still pouring out of his eyes and he just doesn’t understand, he wasn’t like this when Niall was in hospital with his leg, he was upset, sure, but he was okay.

A few minutes later he can hear the Ambulance and he’s controlled his breathing enough to stand up, open the door and press the buttons in the lobby that open up the electric gate. He stands at the door trying to breathe, he’s controlled himself to an acceptable level, but he’s still shaking though, and crying. He holds the door open as the medics enter and they see Zayn. Calling out to each other to bring certain things to help him. They get Zayn on a bed and carry him out to the ambulance. God his body looks so lifeless, he looks like a fate worse than death and it breaks Liam’s heart.

“Are you Liam, the one that called?” one of the medics turns and questions Liam and he realizes he’s been holding his breath this whole time. He exhales, relaxes a bit, and unclenches his fists.

“Yeah I’m Liam” He manages to get out. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He’s taken a nasty fall but we’ve hooked him up and we’re trying to get him to wake up, that’s the priority right now. Do you want to ride with us to the hospital?” Liam starts to cry again and the medic just puts a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not going to tell you that it will be okay, anything could happen. We need to get the patient to the hospital, are you joining us?”

Liam just nods and picks up the keys off the floor as the medic directs him out of the door and towards the back of the ambulance. He’s with Zayn and the sight of him makes him feel sick and another medic, a lady with short blonde hair hands him something to be sick in. “It’s a normal reaction, it’s okay, there’s some water down by the side if you want to clean your mouth.” Liam decides against the water, doesn’t think he can hold anything down, he sits down in the seat provided and puts the sick bucket under his chair. He reaches forward and holds Zayn’s hand; it’s so cold and limp. That itself is enough to start the tears from streaming down his face again.  This whole time the medics are checking his vitals. “When will he wake up” he asks, looking desperately at the team surrounding him. The blonde one who gave him the bucket gives him an answer. “We just don’t know Mr.Payne.”

Liam gets on his knees next to Zayn. “Hey, listen Zayn, we really need you to wake up now, we need you to wake up so we can help sort you out. We need- I need you Zayn, I need you to wake up..” He cries silently and the tears drop onto Zayn’s chest. Liam grabs Zayn’s hand and lifts it to his mouth pressing a few kisses to it. And on the last kiss he drops the hand, he felt it move, he’s sure he did. Just a little finger twitch.

“He moved, I kissed his hand and his finger twitched.” The medics don’t really do anything, they’re just waiting till they arrive at the hospital but Liam carries on talking to him “Zayn, c’mon, I know you can hear me, wake up Zayn.”

~~~

By the time they arrive at the hospital, Zayn still hasn’t woken up. Liam is sat in the waiting room, they had to take Zayn to do some tests and he wasn’t allowed to stay with him. He realizes that he should probably call the others and let them know. The memory of Zayn unconscious on his staircase running through his mind. Trust Zayn to still look beautiful even like that.   
He sits there for a few minutes, letting the tears running down his face come to a stop, he inhales deeply, and starts pacing around as he calls the boys.

He rings Louis and he picks up straight away. “YOOOOOOOOOO LIAM, you coming over today I’ve bought some new players on fifa, come try them out, I was thinking we could...Liam, are you okay?”  
Liam just starts crying, when will the tears stop, wow, how does one human have this many tears in them. He manages to choke out “I’m at the hospital, it’s Zayn, you need to” he doesn’t even finish what he’s saying before he hears doors slamming and Lou say “I’ll be there in twenty. Ring Niall and tell him I’m on my way.” Liam notes the fear in Lou’s voice.

He rings Niall and tells him the same thing, also relaying that Lou will be there in a few minutes to pick him up.

With that done he sits back down and he starts to bite at his nails, and his right leg starts to shake, he feels so helpless, he should be in there helping Zayn. Why did Zayn look so thin, had he not been eating? Why was his hair so greasy? Had he been locked up in his house for the past 4 days, had something happened? A deep voice breaks him out of his thoughts. “You can go see Mr. Malik now, he’s not fully woken up but we’ve sorted out the bleeding, he just cut himself open a bit. We can deal with the rest of his problems once he wakes up. Its room number 18, just around the corner.” Liam thanks the doctor and rushes off to Zayn’s room. Opening the door and just seeing his friend all hooked up to drips and stuff made his chest tighten up. He looked like he was dying.

He manages to take a step forward and then another until eventually he is at Zayn’s side, he threads their fingers, not sure why, it just seemed like the thing to do. He brushes at Zayn’s hair. “Zayn, what is going on with you?” Liam bends down and kisses the boy’s forehead and that’s when he felt it again, he felt his finger twitch. Maybe it was the kissing, maybe it was the contact. Maybe it would wake him up. Liam didn’t have to waste another second thinking before he leaned forward, grabbed Zayn’s head in his hands gently, and pressed their lips together. 

Completely unaware that Niall and Louis had just walked into the room.


	5. What Makes You Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis and Niall arrive to the hospital to find Liam's lips attached to Zayn's. Maybe tonight is the night they figure it out.

** WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL **

**_ Niall _ **

“Niall, do you want the rest of last night’s pizza?”

“Is that a serious question, Ed?” Niall sneaks his arms around the waist of the boy who just walked into the kitchen.

Niall laughs into the chest of the red haired boy. “I’ve made coffee, you go get the pizza and I’ll warm it up” he removes his arms and opens up the microwave, finding some plates to put the remaining pizza slices on.

“Y’know Nialler, I had never eaten warmed up pizza until you came into my life.”

The red haired boy’s eyes met Niall’s as he turned around, mouth open in shock.

“NEVER?! So what have you been doing with your leftover pizza this whole time?”

Ed comes to stand in front of Niall and passes him the pizza box. “Well Niall, usually people only order one pizza for each person instead of 5 pizzas for 2 people, so there never used to be leftover pizza”

Niall laughs at this remark, he knows he goes overboard on the eating but he loves to eat and he has a fast metabolism so who cares. Not him, that’s for sure.

“Leftover pizza is a delicacy.”

“It surely is, now hurry up and heat up the pizza, I’m hungry.” Niall turns to Ed with a smile on his face. “Hungry for pizza or..” he lets the remainder of that sentence linger in the air whilst he grabs Ed’s black shirt and pulls him closer. Ed watches Niall’s eyes carefully as he flicks out his tongue, wetting his lips in anticipation. Niall inhales deeply at the sight in front of him; he leans forward and is inches from Ed’s lips when his phone rings.

“Just leave it.” Ed whispers.

Niall’s eyes flick to the phone on the counter to see who it is, if it’s nobody important he will leave it but its Liam. “It’s Liam, I’ll be quick, heat up the pizza, 38 seconds no more.”

The Irish boy leaves the room as he picks up the phone, looking down at himself and his growing erection. Fuck Ed and those lips of his.

“Lima Bean! Is this important because I’m in the middle of something?”

The reply shocks Niall.

He can hear the crying.

“Yeah. Zayn’s in hospital. Louis will be at yours soon to pick you up.” Niall doesn’t even have time to register what is going on before he hears a car pulling up outside.

He hangs up the phone, confused and scared. Rushing in to the kitchen and placing a kiss on Ed’s cheeks. “Zayn’s in hospital, I’ve gotta go, I’ll see you later, stay as long as you want.” Niall is half way out of the kitchen when a hand is on his wrist, urging him to turn around. Niall turns around and finds himself in Ed’s arms. He can feel the kisses being pressed into his blonde hair. “Text me.” That’s the last thing he hears before the arms drop and he’s being pushed towards the door.

~~~

Louis and Niall both rush up to the reception desk once they get to the hospital. Niall knows that Louis can’t talk right now; he’s too angry and confused. The car ride itself was torture, Lou’s hands clenched tightly around the wheel, cutting off everyone who tried to get into his lane, swearing. Niall hasn’t seen him this worked up in a while.

“We’re here to see our friend, Zayn Malik.” The receptionist searches her documents to find what room he’s in, she takes a few minutes and Niall is watching Louis, he looks like he’s about to kick off when she replies. “Room 18, you have to go down that corridor, turn right and then at the end of the corridor another right and it’s right in front of you.”

“Thank you” Niall gushes as Louis has already bolted down the corridor to locate his best friend. Niall catches up to him and they both enter the room. They’re both met with a crazy sight, Liam with his lips pressed against Zayn’s.

Niall looks at Louis unsure as to what they should do as Liam parts lips. They can hear him crying silently. This is when Louis make their presence known, rattling the door to make it look like they just walked in. Niall lets Louis barge past him to get to Zayn’s side, sitting on the bed and wrapping his arms around his waist whilst he rests his head on his chest. A position that Niall has seen them in many times, Niall takes a second to admire their friendship before he walks over to Liam and pulls him into a hug, his breathing is erratic and he can feel his white t shirt getting wetter by the second due to the tears. “Liam, what happened?”

Liam recalls the past few hours as best as he can, trying to keep his breathing steady. The whole time his right hand is still locked with Zayn’s left one. “I just came in and he was lying there, the blood was still wet so he couldn’t have been there long, what if I hadn’t gone over, how long would he have been lying there, what if he had-..” he doesn’t finish the sentence as Niall grabs his face and pulls it so their eyes are locked. Niall just looks at the beautiful brown eyes before him. “Don’t do that to yourself Barton.” Liam manages to smile at the Avengers reference. Niall doesn’t really know what to do, yeah he’s close with Zayn as they all are but Louis is his best friend and everyone can see that Liam and Zayn are in love with each other. Even if they won’t admit it. So Niall does what he does best. He locates some food.

~~~

He noticed the bakery as Louis was driving them up to the hospital. He didn’t think a bakery would be open on a Sunday but there were people in it when they drove past half an hour ago. He walks down the road for five minutes keeping his eye out, not really sure where he saw it. But then before he knows it he can smell the bread, he knows he’s nearly there. And then he sees it. “JOES” He doesn’t know if they intentionally missed out the apostrophe or not. He makes his way inside and the place looks deserted. He calls out to see if anyone responds. Pushing his blonde hair backwards, reminding himself that he needs to get it cut and dyed soon. He’s about to leave when a curly haired boy makes his way out of the back room.

“Oh, hello, sorry, I thought I had locked up.”

“Harry, didn’t know this was where you worked.”

“Yeah, it’s Niall right?” Niall notes how Harry is standing awkwardly behind the counter not really moving, like he’s just been caught stealing or something.

“Yeah, it’s Niall. How’re you, not seen you since you bolted from the studio. What was that about by the way?” Niall asks because even though he’d text Louis asking what it was about, he still hadn’t been informed on why Harry had run out like that.

“I’m good. Yeah, I forgot that I had plans for that night, I’m not sure why but I just ran.” Niall had only met this boy once before but the way his eyes were jumping about the counter, not looking at Niall gave him away completely. Niall dropped it, knowing he would find the truth out from Louis eventually.

“Oh okay. Are you still making food?” Niall doesn’t even wait for Harry to confirm or deny it before he lists off all the food he wants. “So an egg sandwich for Lou because he talked about them so much the other day. A bacon butty for Liam. And I’ll have a fry up please”

Harry laughed at this, as if bakery’s did fry ups, the look on Niall’s face was one of complete seriousness though.

“We don’t do fry ups Niall”

“Well obviously, you’re a bakery, you just gotta chuck all the stuff on a bun though, it’s pretty simple, bacon, then some beans, a tomato, some sausages, a bit of ketchup. Sorted.” Harry laughs at this, a good hearty laugh that makes Niall think that he’s not feeling as nervous anymore.

“Anything for Zayn?”

“Shit. That’s why I’m here actually, we’re all at the hospital, Zayn’s unconscious right now. I’ve left the boyfriend and the best friend over there whilst I came to find my true love, food”

“Oh my god, is everyone okay?” Harry asks, genuinely concerned. All whilst serving up the butties for Niall.

“Yeah, well we don’t know about Zayn yet, he’s not awake but apart from that, we’re all just a bit shaken up.” Niall finds himself leaning on the counter, relaxing onto it, releasing some tension in his back that he didn’t realise had been building. “You should come over after you’ve finished here.” Niall states whilst he watches Harry bag the fry up concoction.

He sees Harry tense up but doesn’t question it.

“Maybe, I’ll yeah, maybe.” Harry hands over the 3 sandwiches. “Here, these are on the house, I’ll pray for Zayn, I’ll see you later, Niall.” Harry follows Niall to the door, locking it up behind him.

Niall thinks Harry is weird. But not like ‘stay away from him’ weird, just a normal ‘you’re a peculiar human’ weird. He makes his way back to the hospital and back to room 18.

~~~

It’s a few hours later and Zayn has finally woke up, when it happened Liam and Louis were both falling asleep. Liam had pulled up a comfy chair so that he could carry on holding Zayn’s hand. Niall questioned how Liam hadn’t realized he was in love with Zayn yet, the constant touching, the puppy dog eyes, the secret glances, sharing rooms. How did Liam not see it? A blind man could probably see it better than Liam could. Louis had curled up on the sofa on the far side of the room. Niall just watched him. Louis was a great person to just sit and watch, even when he was sleeping. The way his eyelashes curled. How his breathing slowed down so much that it looked like he had stopped doing it entirely. He loved the way Louis looked so childlike whilst he slept. Looking around at his boys all sleeping he realised that all he wanted was to protect these boys. He would do anything for them. Shifting his gaze from Louis to the floor, distracting himself from crying.

“What’s going on?”

Niall’s eyes jerked up, locking on Zayn. He was awake.

“Guys, wake up!” Niall shouted, rushing out of the room to grab a doctor.

He came running back after he found one to see that Liam was no longer holding Zayn’s hand, and Louis was stroking at Zayn’s hair whilst telling him how worried he was. Niall gave Liam a questioning look whilst he stepped aside to let the doctors tend to Zayn. Niall didn’t want to get in the way so he sat down on the sofa. It was so comfy, sinking deep into the seat.

Niall’s not sure how long they were sat there before the doctors confirmed that he was okay but that they’d like for Zayn to stay in over night just to make sure and that they’d need to speak to him tomorrow, alone. By this point it was nearly 11 at night and Niall was tired. “So are we staying here tonight guys because I think somebody might have to share the bed with Zayn?” Niall commented, staring at Liam in the process.

“No, guys, go home, get a good nights sleep, I’ll be fine. The doctors will ring you if anything happens anyway.”

“Whilst I normally would just stay here because you are my best friend and I am worried about you. The family surprised me this morning and I think I should go home and see them before they leave tomorrow. They send their love by the way.”

Zayn smiles at this, loving how much the Tomlinson family make him feel like he’s one of their family members. He practically is. Louis and him have been friends since they were 3, he’s been with the family through everything. “I’m sorry, send them my love, tell them I’m fine and that I’ll ring them all on Monday.” This time it was Louis who smiled, loving the fact that his mother treated Zayn like her own, expecting a weekly call from him, and making sure that Zayn called the girls too to let them know what’s going up. And both himself and Zayn got monthly visits off them. He loved their friendship. Louis makes his way over to the bed hugging Zayn tightly and kissing him on the cheek.

Niall notices a shadow appear at the door and he’s just about to announce everyone of Harry’s presence.

“I love you Zayn.”

Niall sees Harry’s face drop, he looks hurt.

“I love you too Louis.”

Harry shoots Niall a glance and then just as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared. He can deal with that another time. He pulls Louis into a hug and decides that he better go also seeing as Louis drove him over, his cat needs feeding and he doesn’t know if Ed would have done it before he left, or if Ed even left, realising in that moment that he never texted him.

That leaves Liam. As Niall is leaving the room he turns back in time to see tears start to fall down Liam face and Zayn grabs his wrist and pulls him into a hug.

“Maybe tonight is the night.” Niall says out loud in his usual cheery irish accent.

“What are you babbling on about Niall?” Louis asks, half way down the corridor already.

Niall just smiles to himself and rushes to catch up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the end of the what makes you beautiful section. I'm going on holiday soon for a few weeks so I won't be able to update for a while. I recommend that in my absence, you go find the fic known as Escapade and fall deeply in love with Jack Mcqueen if you haven't already!


	6. Gotta Be You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn's out of hospital and the boys are looking after him. Will they get to the bottom of what's been bothering Zayn?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I haven't updated in a while, I wrote this chapter 4 times, each chapter sending the story in a different way but I've chosen this one and I just hope that this story is improving.

**GOTTA BE YOU**

_ **Niall** _

Niall wakes up in Zayn’s bed, the boys had been taking turns to keep him company whilst he rested. Niall eventually gets it out of Zayn that he’s in love with Liam and that he’s tried to like other people but Liam is all he wants. It’s gotta be Liam. They hatch a plan. They ask one of Niall’s friends Jade if one of the girls from little mix will pretend to be Zayn’s girlfriend to see if Liam gets jealous.

Niall wakes up early one morning, the sun only just beginning to shine through the blinds in the room. The urge to pee rising in-wait, blinds, he has curtains. Looking around he sees Zayn curled up on the other side of the bed. Last night’s memories coming to the forefront of his mind.

The irish fella stretches and chucks the duvet off him, making a mental note to ask Zayn later why he needs a duvet so thick. Feels like falling asleep in a sauna. Not a fan. “Jesus, it’s hot.” He whispers as he gets out of bed and stumbles towards the en suite. He relieves himself and finds himself back in the bedroom at Zayn’s side. He reaches out and brushes the sleeping boys hair out of his eyes, it feels quite silky under his hands, unlike it had done a few days ago. At the hospital Zayn’s hair was slicked back in grease, he looked like death was imminent. It’s amazing what a few days of good company can do.

And that’s what the boys had been doing. Each night a different lad took over watching him. Making sure he ate, showered, and performed basic human functions. That’s what the doctors were most concerned with. The fall down the stairs had split open his head but the only reason he fell down the stairs was because he fainted. His vitals were so low. He hadn't been eating, drinking, exercising, nothing. It wasn't like Zayn at all and the boys had been trying to figure out why he was acting this way. Management had suggested they send him to rehab to sort him out. Louis had argued with them till he was as red as a tomato, as if they would let Zayn go to rehab when he didn't need it. Just needed a wakeup call and a good looking after. And that’s what the boys were there to do.

He doesn't know how long he stood there recalling the last few days but he’s brought back to his senses when he gets a flick on his bare stomach and a “Nialler what are you doing?” thrown at him.

A hand running through his blonde mop.

“Hey, I just got up to pee, I was going to wake you up and see if you wanted any food. You didn't each much last night and I'm going to go make some breakfast.” 

Niall stands there eyes locked on Zayn’s. He knows if he breaks eye contact then Zayn might try and argue that he’s not hungry, but they can both hear the noises coming from his abdomen.  There is no reply until an extra loud grumble. “Okay, apparently I’m hungry. What do you have planned for us?”

“Well if you’ll get out of that sauna you call a bed and follow me..” Niall responds whilst picking up some sweatpants and throwing the duvet off Zayn to reveal the naked boy. Niall isn't even bothered about seeing him naked. They all lived together and saw each other naked  plenty of times. What gets to him is how slim he looks, some bones sticking out more than they used to. Coughing and dragging his eyes away he chucks some fresh boxers at Zayn. “Shower first, be down in 10 minutes and chef horan will have a lovely meal prepared to satisfy your needs.” Grinning at the sleepy boy before exiting the room.

“Niall just-“

“I know, I know, small portions baby. You’ll get there.”

~~~

Niall’s already ridiculously proud of how far Zayn’s come. It’s only been a few days since he got out of hospital and he’s already started to eat 3 meals a day. Although they may be smaller than usual, he’s just happy his boy is eating again.  

He can hear the shower turn on and the water start to trickle erratically. He picked up his phone before leaving the bedroom so he checks through his notifications. Sighing when he finds yet another text of Ed. He still hadn’t text him back, he didn't know what to say, he didn't even want to talk about the last week. He knows Ed just wants to help and be there for him but....no.

Most of the boys have similar kitchens within their homes which he thanks God for as he starts to pull out pans to prepare breakfast. Grabbing a chopping board he begins to chop up mushrooms and onions before adding them to a pan with a bit of oil. He heats up some beans in the microwave. He pours some tomatoes into a pan, cooks those. Adds some sausages to the onions and mushrooms for himself and puts some bread in the toaster for Zayn.

Some enthralled in the cooking he doesn't even hear the shower turn off or Zayn make his way downstairs. He just knows he almost burns himself when he jumps due to Zayn wrapping his arms around his waist. Zayn’s damp chest pressed against his warm back, it feels nice, homely.

“Thanks Nialler.” Is mumbled into his shoulder before the arms are taken back and Zayn starts to get some plates out and make his morning coffee.

“Hey no, you're still on bed rest, go sit down you git!” Niall squawks, kicking Zayn gently on the bum. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Zayn’s shoulders slouch as he puts down his mug on the counter and exits the room. There’s something wrong with Zayn and he’s determined to get it out of him.

~~~

Niall watches as Zayn finishes eating his toast, there’s some mushrooms left on his plate but he decides to let him off. He’s trying so hard to make the boys happy, to get back to how he used to be. He’s not going to push him.

“You done?” Niall asks him, grabbing his plate, a nod of the head is all he gets in response.

When he came into the room with the food, Zayn was watching FRIENDS, something all the boys used to sit and watch together. He sits there for a few minutes and enjoys the episode,. Watching Zayn out of the corner of his eye. He fidgets a lot when there’s stuff on his mind and he’s fidgeting like mad right now.

“Alright, alright, spit it out.”

“What?”

Niall stares at Zayn for a few minutes before grabbing the remote out of his hands, not giving in to Zayn’s protests about how “there’s only a few minutes left” and “It’s my favourite episode” with a side of “just wait till Monica and Chandler kiss.” He turns the TV off and faces Zayn.

“c’mon, don’t be shitbag, I know something’s up.”

“nah, nothing mate, just been feeling a bit down. I'm getting better.” Zayn practically whispers towards Niall, not looking up at him once. Eyes staring at his hands.

“I didn't want to have to do this Zayn but you leave me with no choice.” Niall announces  before straddling Zayn and placing his hands on either side of his head, making eye contact. He can feel Zayn’s bones underneath him, it’s not as pleasant as it used to be.

He places a kiss on top of Zayn’s head and doesn't pull back until he’s uttered  “you’re safe, you know that, let it out.”

Their eyes are locked for only a minute or so before Zayn’s eyes start to flicker, his lip starts to shake. Tears fill his eyes. Hands that were previously placed beside him on the couch find themselves on Niall’s waist, grabbing at him, pulling him close. And Niall lets him. He pulls Zayn’s head to his shoulder, sitting back a bit onto his legs to make things more comfortable. He strokes circles into his back, just where Zayn likes it. He listens to Zayn’s sobs break the silence, knowing he'll speak when he’s ready. 

He doesn’t know how he got there but suddenly he’s thinking about the last time he was with Ed and how they were in a similar position to this. His thoughts are broken by Zayn’s whispering thoughts.

“I'm in love with Liam.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So It's out there. Zayn is in love with Liam. But does Liam feel the same, who knows??


End file.
